Sell to Prospects who CAN/WILL Buy

Sell to Prospects who CAN/WILL Buy

Your solution is great. You know the narrative of the type of buyers who buy. You’re writing appropriate content and getting it out to the right demographic. But you’re still closing less than 5% from first contact and spending a ton of resource finding different ways to touch the same people as your competition touches – in hopes that you’ll have the right message that catches them at the right time, or just grind them down.

DO YOU WANT TO SELL? OR HAVE SOMEONE BUY?

You’re not closing more because you’re messages target a restricted audience, those who have already

tried all familiar resources and workarounds to fix their own problem and came up short,

decided their only route to a problem resolution is to make a purchase,

gotten appropriate buy-in and managed any disruption that a purchase would bring

and then you and your competitors work tirelessly to grab from that small pool of ready buyers. Seeking those you believe are probable buyers (those who SHOULD buy) limits your spectrum of buyers to those at the end of their decision path (beginning at step 10 of 13 steps. See steps below.) and concluded they not only need to buy something, but are prepared for any change a purchase will cause.

We forget that a buying decision is primarily a change management problem, not a solution choice issue (Indeed, the last thing buyers want is to buy anything. Literally: the last thing.). By acting as if selling causes buying, we disregard the internal, private, idiosyncratic, systemic change management work buyers must do before they’ve got their ducks in a row and are ready; until then, they can’t buy regardless of their need or the efficacy of your solution.

The sales model only handles the solution choice/buying portion of the complete Buying Decision Path targeting those you believe have a probable ‘need’ – the low hanging fruit – and have completed their journey to Buyer Readiness. But this is merely a fraction of those who will eventually buy.

Here are the problems you face when targeting probably buyers who don’t yet have all their ducks in a row:

Once prospects have determined a need, you’re already in a competitive situation and have to find ways to be better/cheaper/more branded.

You’re wasting over 90% of your time finding, following up, meeting with, and in several ways trying to connect with, those who appear to need your solution but turn out not to be buyers.

You ignore the high percentage of those who would/will buy but aren’t yet ready to (but could easily be gotten ready).

You overlook the possibility of connecting with, and serving, real buyers early along their change management/decision path

and reduces the number of possible entry points onto the Buying Decision Team/buying decision.

Sure, you’re making great information available for those who know what to look for and are ready to engage. But by adding a new component, you could be entering earlier and facilitating the full range of steps along the buying decision process – those that are not acessible with the sales model. The problem has never been your terrific solution but in closing all the sales you deserve to close. It’s because sales is solution-placement driven, seeking optimal ways to get to probable buyers but ignores the much higher pool of real prospects who aren’t far enough down their buyer’s journey to commit or engage.

SELLING DOESN’T CAUSE BUYING

As a solution placement model, the sales model is great for when buyers have determined they cannot resolve their solution on their own and have gotten the appropriate buy in for change. But for those buyers who SHOULD buy but haven’t yet determined if they CAN buy, sales doesn’t have the intent, skills, or focus on facilitating the Systems Congruence steps buyers must take first. Sales wasn’t created to do that.